SK Hynix CEO warns 2027 will be memory’s “worst year” ever, with shortages set to outlast the decade

Memory shortages have gripped all aspects of the tech industry, and it seems to have become the norm these days. As the supply crunch continues, the CEO of SK Hynix, one of the three largest DRAM producers, has said that things are about to get much worse for the memory market.

Talking to Reuters at the commemoration of SK Hynix's Nasdaq Trading Debut of its ADR, CEO Kwak Noh-jung stated that the memory industry will see its "worst-ever" supply shortages in the coming year (2027). SK Hynix has also forecasted that, given the current market demand, they will fall way short of fulfilling the market demand, and that will continue beyond 2030.

...Heightened demand from AI customers and multi-year agreements further put pressure on the market...

Meanwhile, in other news: Microsoft advises users to throw out their perfectly good working PCs - and buy new ones so they can "upgrade" from Windows 10 - to an inferior Windows 11 operating system. That's if you can find a replacement system / at a sensible price! It's a mad world, isn't it?...

www.wccftech.com

Great news: Microsoft adds another year to Windows 10 extended update program!

Microsoft ended official support for Windows 10 in 2025, but the company may have a harder time than expected putting the operating system out to pasture. After promising a year of optional extended update support, Microsoft has changed its policy, tacking on another year to its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. If you are still clinging to Windows 10, you don’t have to do anything but enjoy that extra year.

The last regular updates rolled out to Windows 10 in October of last year, but the Internet can be a dangerous place for unpatched Windows machines. That was a problem for Microsoft, as Windows 11 usage had only barely surpassed Windows 10 when support ended. Microsoft’s solution was to give everyone on the old OS a free year of extended updates.

That program was set to end on October 12, 2026, but Microsoft has updated its policy with hardly a whisper, pushing back the end of extended updates to October 12, 2027. The ESU support page was updated with that date, and Microsoft’s blog post on the program has a new editor’s note confirming the change.

www.arstechnica.com

Windows 11 turns five, leaving some important lessons for Microsoft

On June 24, 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 11, unveiling a new and controversial operating system. Five years on, how has that worked out for you, Redmond?

Windows 11 has always been a problem child for Microsoft. It was announced in June 2021 and became generally available on October 5 that year, while much of its customer base was still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, The Register called it pointless rather than a point release of Microsoft's flagship operating system.

Why? Because Windows 10 was more than adequate. Microsoft's apology for the Windows 8.x era was… fine. It mostly worked without difficulty. It lacked the user-experience missteps of its predecessors and was an architectural step up from Windows 7. And, most importantly, the operating system didn't trip up a user's workflow.

There is an old adage: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," but Microsoft set to work fixing Windows 10 regardless, and the result was Windows 11. The user experience has irked users ever since. Did you like being able to move the taskbar around in Windows 10? Tough – in Windows 11, you'll have to learn to love where Microsoft stuck it. How about the Start Menu? Again, Microsoft knew best and redesigned it. READ MORE...

www.theregister.com

CPUID breach exposed CPU-Z and HWMonitor users to Malware

If you downloaded CPU-Z or HWMonitor from the Official CPUID website on April 9 or 10, 2026, you may want to stop what you are doing and take a closer look at your PC (or contact Donline). CPUID confirmed that attackers compromised part of its download infrastructure which was first reported by DMKiller on Reddit The attack briefly replaced legitimate download links with malicious ones in a six-hour window. The company says the issue has been fixed and that its original signed files were not altered.

This hack matters because CPU-Z and HWMonitor are trusted Windows tools. The attack exploited that trust, making it that much more dangerous. READ MORE...

www.majorgeeks.com

Microsoft breaks Microsoft account sign-ins in Windows 11 with latest update

 

Microsoft has broken account sign-ins in Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2 with a recent update, causing error messages in apps like OneDrive and Office.

The glitch affects sign-in operations for Microsoft accounts. Businesses using Entra ID (previously known as Azure Active Directory) for application authentication are not affected.

However, users of Microsoft Teams Free, or anyone signing into Word, Excel, OneDrive, or Microsoft 365 Copilot with a Microsoft account, may see a message along the lines of "You'll need the Internet for this. It doesn't look like you're connected to the Internet" - regardless of whether the device actually is.

According to Microsoft: "This issue occurs when the device enters a specific network connectivity state, and may resolve on its own." A restart should also fix it, provided the device is online at the time.

"If the device is restarted without an active internet connection," Microsoft cautioned, "it might return to a connectivity state where the issue can occur again."

As for a fix that doesn't involve a weary reach for the big red button – virtual or otherwise – Microsoft wrote: "We are working to release a resolution for this issue in the next few days." This sounds a lot like yet another out-of-band update to deal with whatever the company broke in the March 10 update for Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2.

www.theregister.com

Microsoft says uninstall Windows 11 KB5074109 to fix Outlook POP, PST hang, as 2026’s first update causes havoc

If your Outlook Classic freezes or hangs when you use POP accounts or deal with PST files, you’ll need to remove Windows 11 KB5074109 or use webmail. In some cases, third-party apps can also become unresponsive if they save files to cloud storage, such as OneDrive. These two issues are apparently related to a single core problem.

It’s very rare for Microsoft to admit that it messed up, but the January 2026 Update is a disaster, as it continues to break features in Windows 11, including something as basic as Sleep mode (S3) on older PCs. In our tests, Windows Latest found that the update causes a black screen, resets the desktop background, breaks File Explorer customization, among other problems.

KB5074109 is a mandatory update that began rolling out on January 13, 2026 and it installed automatically on our PCs. Your PC is using this update if you see OS Build 26200.7623 / 26100.7623 / in Settings > System > About or winver.

Meanwhile in other news: Windows 11 continues to lose market share to Windows 10. Oh dear Microsoft - when you go for a cash grab, and your code is garbage - you reap what you sow!

UPDATE TheRegister 260126: Microsoft probes Windows 11 boot failures tied to January security updates. Some machines are failing to start after security updates, prompting yet another Microsoft investigation

www.windowslatest.com

Dell says Windows 11 transition is far slower than Win 10 shift as PC sales stall

 

Dell has predicted PC sales will be flat next year, despite the potential of the AI PC and the slow replacement of Windows 10.

“We have not completed the Windows 11 transition,” COO Jeffrey Clarke said during Dell’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday. “In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end of support, we are 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation.”

Clarke said that means 500 million PCs can’t run Windows 11, while the same number didn’t need an upgrade to handle Microsoft’s latest desktop OS. The COO therefore predicted the PC market will “flourish”, but then defined the word as meaning “roughly flat” sales despite Dell chalking up mid-to high single digits PC sales growth over the last year.

www.theregister.com

Broken wizard forces Microsoft to issue out-of-band Windows 10 patch

Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band update on November 11 to fix a malfunctioning enrolment wizard that prevented eligible Windows 10 users from accessing Extended Security Updates (ESU).

Despite months promoting the ESU program as the solution for Windows 10 devices after end-of-support from October 14, Microsoft failed to ensure its enrolment system actually worked. For affected users, the broken wizard meant security updates would stop flowing entirely — a critical failure requiring an urgent fix.

So it came to pass, that on the first Patch Tuesday after free support for Windows 10 ended, Microsoft released KB5071959 for consumer Windows 10 devices not enrolled in the ESU program. Whoopsie.

Microsoft has made several concessions to Windows 10 consumers over the past year. In September, it offered a free year of ESU updates to users in the European Economic Area (EEA). It also allowed users to qualify by syncing settings to Microsoft's cloud or spending 1,000 Microsoft reward points. Otherwise, consumers were asked to pay $30 annually for twelve more months support.

Affected users must now install the emergency update, re-enroll their device, and then the Windows 10 November 2025 security update should be available.

www.theregister.com

Windows market share spells disaster for Microsoft's campaign to get people upgrading

 

In news I’m fairly certain no one saw coming, Windows 7 is making a comeback - at least in terms of market share.

The latest Statcounter figures claim the operating system many thought was long dead (Microsoft stopped supporting it at the start of 2020), has suddenly found a new lease of life as Windows 10 nears its support cutoff and Windows 11 continues to slide.

Yes, it was once again bad news for Microsoft’s current OS. Its share fell for the second time in a row in September 2025, accounting for 48.94% of desktop use compared with 49.08% in August and well off its July high of 53.51% - a 4.57 percentage point plunge in just two months.

www.techradar.com

Microsoft U turns on Windows 10 updates for European Economic Area

Microsoft has confirmed it will extend Windows 10 security updates by an additional year at no cost, but only for customers in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The move means users across the EEA will be able to access the Extended Security Updates (ESU) programme until 14th October 2026, without the previously required conditions such as cloud backup or Microsoft Rewards enrolment. However, they will still need to register with a Microsoft account and re-authenticate every 60 days.

The decision follows pressure from consumer groups including Euroconsumers, which had raised concerns that Microsoft’s approach to the ESU scheme conflicted with the EU’s Digital Markets Act by placing unnecessary conditions on access.

www.channelweb.co.uk

Windows 10 Extended Security Updates - how to get enrolled

 

Microsoft says Windows 10 home users who want to delay switching to Windows 11 can enrol in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program at no additional cost using Microsoft Rewards points or enabling Windows Backup to sync their data to the cloud.

Windows 10 will reach the end of support on October 14, 2025. After this date, Microsoft will stop providing bug fixes and security updates to fix newly discovered vulnerabilities, with unpatched systems exposed to attacks and malware.

Windows Insiders will be able to enrol in ESU using an enrolment wizard available in Windows Settings and through desktop notifications starting today, with the wizard to roll out to all other Windows 10 customers in July.

However - "dear old Microsoft" isn't consistently rolling this out yet - & there's only a few weeks to go before End Of Support (EOS)! If you would like to get this kick-started - CONTACT DONLINE.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

US Consumer Reports calls on Microsoft to extend support for Windows 10

Consumer Reports sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calling on the company to extend its support of Windows 10 devices given the security threat posed by leaving millions of operational devices unprotected.  On October 14, these computers will be stranded when Microsoft transitions from the Windows 10 operating system to Windows 11. Windows 10 is currently used by an estimated 46% of Windows computers, and a significant percentage of these machines are unable to run Windows 11.

Consumer Reports is calling on Microsoft to provide free extended support for consumers who have not — and often cannot — make the transition, and to continue providing that support for free until more users have transitioned off the older OS. In the attached letter we explain why Microsoft’s decision to provide paid support only for one year is a security risk, and how the lack of backwards compatibility for certain Windows 10 machines sold only a couple of years ago is a blow to consumers’ pocketbooks. Microsoft should do the right thing and continue supporting Windows 10 without charging consumers.

advocacy.consumerreports.org

How to get another free year of updates for your Windows 10 PC

Officially, Microsoft will stop providing new security updates for Windows 10 PCs after October 14, 2025, a little over a decade after its initial release. It's a stick that Microsoft is using to push upgrades to the newer Windows 11, whether you install it on a PC you already have or buy a brand-new PC to meet Windows 11's system requirements.

But if you can't or don't want to upgrade to Windows 11, Microsoft has made it reasonably simple to get an extra year of Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for Windows 10, extending its official support window to October of 2026. But this won't happen automatically; users will need to enroll their PCs in the ESU program to get the updates, using an enrollment feature that Microsoft just released to Windows 10 PCs recently.

For anyone looking to get that extra year of updates, here's how to enroll your PC, and how to avoid paying the $30 fee that Microsoft is nominally charging for these updates... READ MORE - or- CONTACT DONLINE.

www.arstechnica.com

Windows 10 users can get extended security updates using Microsoft points

Microsoft says Windows 10 home users who want to delay switching to Windows 11 can enrol in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program at no additional cost using Microsoft Rewards points or enabling Windows Backup to sync their data to the cloud.

Windows 10 will reach the end of support on October 14, 2025. After this date, Microsoft will stop providing bug fixes and security updates to fix newly discovered vulnerabilities, with unpatched systems exposed to attacks and malware.

Windows Insiders will be able to enrol in ESU using an enrolment wizard available in Windows Settings and through desktop notifications starting today, with the wizard to roll out to all other Windows 10 customers in July.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Windows 11 market share stalls ahead of Windows 10 cutoff

User adoption of Windows 11 is slowing down, with the operating system still lagging behind Windows 10 as end of support nears.

After an impressive start to 2025, the last few months have not seen the market share of Windows 11 expand, according to Statcounter. After cresting the 40 percent mark by March, figures released at the start of June put the operating system's slice of the pie at 43.22 percent. The previous month, it was 43.72 percent.

In comparison, Windows 10's market share currently stands at 53.19 percent, slightly up on the previous month's 52.94 percent.

Considering that only a few months remain before Microsoft pulls support for many versions of Windows 10 (14th October 2025), the apparent stall of Windows 11's adoption is a trend that must cause some consternation at Microsoft.

www.gs.statcounter.com

Microsoft moved the goalposts once. Will Windows 12 bring another shift?

Retired Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer has weighed in on the increasingly heated discussion regarding the impending end of Windows 10. Are Windows 11's hardware requirements all about security or just a sales ploy in disguise?

Plummer comes from the days of MS-DOS and Windows NT 4 and had a hand in Windows Activation. He also recently mused on Microsoft's move to a subscription model, regarding the latest iterations of Microsoft's operating system as more of an "adversary" than an assistant.

The controversy over Windows 11's hardware requirements is more nuanced. On one side, there is the laudable goal of securing Windows by requiring the presence of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 and a relatively modern CPU. On the other hand, there are many devices capable of running Windows 10 that fail Microsoft's hardware compatibility requirements, usually through a lack of TPM 2.0 and/or an older CPU.

"Microsoft," said Plummer, "has previously ended support for older operating systems. The discontinuation of support for Windows XP and later Windows 7 are prime examples. In those cases, the primary rationale was usually the increasing difficulty and cost of maintaining security and ensuring compatibility with modern software and hardware on aging platforms.

"However, the Windows 11 situation feels somewhat different. Many of the PCs excluded by the TPM and CPU requirements are not necessarily old or underpowered; they simply lack a specific relatively recent security chip or a sufficiently new processor architecture.

Although older Surface devices might not meet Microsoft's hardware requirements for Windows 11, the company announced new hardware this week in the form of a 12-inch Surface Pro and a 13-inch Surface Laptop. Both are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chips and, unsurprisingly, carry the Copilot+ PC label.

"This feels less like a natural progression of technology leaving older systems behind due to performance limitations, and more like a specific hardware gate being erected."

The question must also be asked – what does this mean for Windows 12? Microsoft is relentlessly promoting its Copilot+ PCs, and it's not hard to envisage a world where hardware acceleration for the company's AI becomes a prerequisite. Accessing a preview of the company's flagship Recall feature currently requires a Copilot+ PC, for example.

"If this trend continues," Plummer continued, "it's quite conceivable that future versions of Windows could impose even stricter hardware demands, potentially leaving an even larger number of currently functional PCs unable to upgrade," and so the cycle goes on...

www.theregister.com

Microsoft Windows - the future is grim...

Windows is at that awkward stage any global empire has to go through. Around one in five of the world population is a Windows user – 1.5 billion humans. Aside from the relatively small slice that Mac takes, everyone else is happy with smartphones, so until we make contact with credulous aliens, there are no new worlds for Microsoft to conquer. In an industry obsessed with growth, this is untenable.

It gets worse. For almost all of the existing user base, Windows 10 is perfectly fine, so Windows 11 has to be forced down their gullets at gunpoint. You cannot have a fifth of humanity pinned like a moth collection to your desktop and not monetize them. This has led, as Dave Plummer notes, to an OS that's both tool and adversary, one that gives you AI whether you like it or not, and one that advertises and prods and pulls you toward paid services whether you like it or not. There is change for change's sake, and not for small change either.

This will not get better. Microsoft is unsure of or unable to communicate what's coming. Project Hudson Valley, initially talked of as Window 12 with a 2025 launch, faded away as Hudson Valley became the AI-laden Uncanny Valley of Win 11 24H2. The marketing power of a new major version doesn't work if it's an amplification of a previous failure, but all that can mean is more bad AI you can't turn off, more monetization tweaks, more attempts to kill the older version. There may even be a push to a subscription licensing model.

All of this is reprehensible from an engineering viewpoint. Windows used to be terrible, then it got good, now it's getting terrible again because it is exempt from competitive forces.

Nobody talks much about Windows 12 because it doesn't matter, it's going to be even worse, it's going to hurt more. You may have more freedom to escape than you think, especially if you plan ahead. Cold turkey isn't the only way to skip free of an addiction. Think ahead to how things will be on recent evidence, then think on. READ MORE...

www.theregister.com

The Outlook isn't great for Microsoft - even more issues!

Far be it from us to suggest Microsoft is trying to force people onto its New Outlook application, but it has admitted Classic Outlook occasionally and mysteriously turns into a system resource hog.

It's a SNAFU that may just push folks over the edge to the new app – or to a full alternative.

The Windows behemoth earlier this week confirmed its software goes awry, and said users may experience CPU usage spikes of up to 30 to 50 percent and increased power consumption.

Users flagged the issue as far back as November 2024, and Microsoft has finally acknowledged that something odd is going on. Affected customers say it happens on Windows 10 and 11.

The issue can be observed by opening Task Manager and watching the CPU usage rise. Microsoft offered little in the way of a fix, saying only that "the Outlook Team is investigating this issue."

www.theregister.com

End of Windows 10 Leaves PC Charities with Tough Choice

Unless Microsoft changes its mind at the last minute, Windows 10 will stop receiving free security updates this coming October. For those who can upgrade to Windows 11, the solution is obvious: Run the new OS even if you don’t like it. But there are hundreds of millions – by one estimate 240 million – PCs that don’t meet Microsoft’s stringent Windows 11 hardware requirements.

If you’re a consumer or a business, Microsoft and the PC industry would very much like you to toss these systems in the trash and buy new computers to take their place. But forgotten in this capitalist crush are all the charities (like TWAM) that refurbish older computers and give them to people who can’t afford to purchase one.

These non-profits are sitting on a plethora of still-working computers that can’t run Microsoft’s latest OS. Do they give clients a soon-to-be-insecure Windows 10 computer, send older computers to an ewaste recycler, toss them in the trash or try to install some form of Linux?

It is worth noting that Microsoft will also continue to provide Security Intelligence Updates for Microsoft Defender Antivirus through at least October 2028.

www.tomshardware.com

Oh Microsoft why don't you do the right thing for once? Future Windows 10 updates will cost $61 per device!

Microsoft has quietly updated a support document on how the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 will work and how much it will cost - and for some it might cause their stomach to churn.

Administrators and accountants alike will be looking glumly at the prices that Microsoft announced in 2024 if their organizations still require Windows 10. In the company's reworked list, it spells out some of the ways whereby users might dodge the fees. If, for example, you have a Windows 10 endpoint connecting to a Windows 365 Cloud PC, ESU could be free.

Windows 10 virtual machines running Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop are also entitled to ESU for up to three years, provided the user has an active Windows 365 subscription license.

Microsoft also updated the support document to confirm the cost to keep the security updates flowing for commercial customers: $61 for Year One per device, a figure that will double for every subsequent year for a maximum of three years. And no, it won't be possible to save money by leaving it for a while before signing up: "If you decide to purchase the program in Year Two, you'll have to pay for Year One too, as ESUs are cumulative," said Microsoft.

Grrr... I mentioned it on this blog a while ago: Microsoft seems to be making all their decisions as bad decisions. I've worked with Microsoft systems for 30 years & been a partner since 1998. They've done some crappy stuff over the years - but this is the worst I've seen.

www.theregister.com